MENTERI BESAR SELANGOR (PEMERBADANAN)

On the court record

A state statutory corporation litigating land-acquisition compensation, a mass tort claim over a water disruption, trust disputes over land and shares, and the recovery of wrongly paid Voluntary Separation Scheme moneys.

Menteri Besar Selangor (Pemerbadanan) is a state statutory corporation, and it appears in the corpus in a varied set of disputes — land acquisition, a mass tort claim, contractual and trust questions over land and shares, and the recovery of payments from former employees. It appears as appellant, defendant, respondent and plaintiff across the High Court and Federal Court.

Land and its acquisition feature prominently. In a Malay-language land reference the corporation objected to the adequacy of the award for the value of the land, severance and injurious affection; the court allowed an increase for the land value and severance while dismissing the claims for injurious affection and incidental costs. A separate matter concerned an abandoned project and an alleged trust over acquired land, with a preliminary issue on the jurisdiction of the Sessions Court and whether the corporation, as a successor in title, was bound by a sale and purchase agreement under the doctrine of privity.

The corporation's other appearances range widely. In a large tort action a group of hundreds of plaintiffs sued numerous defendants over a 2020 water disruption in Kuala Lumpur, the High Court determining the threshold issue of locus standi. In a full civil trial the corporation, as a plaintiff, sought the return of shares from directors of a company, raising whether a trust or a constructive trust existed over those shares. At the Federal Court a matter concerned the corporation's claim to recover payments made under a Voluntary Separation Scheme that were said to have been wrongly paid to former employees. Across these matters the corporation's litigation reflects its position as a state investment and development vehicle whose dealings in land, companies and employment generate disputes over compensation, trust, standing and the recovery of moneys wrongly disbursed. The recurring posture is that of a state development vehicle whose extensive dealings in land, companies and employment repeatedly draw it into litigation over compensation, trust and the recovery of moneys.